Establishment and cytogenetic characterization of a cell line from a pulmonary metastasis of osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most frequent malignant bone tumour in children and adolescents. In metastatic patients, the most common site of metastasis is the lung. There are relatively few cell lines of metastatic OS reported in the literature and the cytogenetic aspects of OS metastases are still controversial and inconclusive. Here we describe the establishment of a new OS cell line, M-OS, from a pulmonary metastasis of a typical osteoblastic OS of an 11-year-old boy with metastatic OS at diagnosis. M-OS cells have been maintained in culture for over 50 passages for more than 1 year. M-OS was characterized by immunohistochemistry, conventional cytogenetics and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In order to evaluate in vitro cell modification, the immunohistochemical analysis was performed in three different moments of the cell line: 10th, 30th and 50th passages. The conventional cytogenetic analysis revealed the ploidy of M-OS cell line as near-diploid, with most metaphases hyperdiploid and tetraploid. We found a copy number gain of MDM2 gene as the most frequent alteration in the FISH analysis. The immunohistochemical analysis confirmed that M-OS cell line maintained the osteogenic nature even after all passages for the cell line establishment in vitro.